Chapter 85: A Losing game
Qin Haoran continued climbing toward the throne as the others forced themselves back onto their feet.
Xingluo reached the altar first and drove her sword toward his back, while Han Zhen and Miao Tianhe rushed up the steps from either side. The remaining participants attacked from below, sending weapons and condensed mana across the narrowing distance.
The Divine Eye formation writhed behind Qin and the remaining pupil separated from its ring and flew outward, leaving trails of golden light through the cathedral.
They spread around Qin and the throne before connecting through hundreds of thin lines, forming a spherical barrier that closed over the entire altar.
Xingluo’s sword struck its surface and stopped, Han Zhen and Miao Tianhe attacked beside her, but their weapons only sent ripples through the golden layer. The ranged attacks from below disappeared into the barrier without reaching Qin.
Wuxia summoned several shadows inside the altar, but their forms appeared outside the barrier instead.
He tried again from different positions, each Soul Soldier was forced to manifest beyond the connected eyes, no matter where he directed the summoning.
"The barrier is stopping them," Wuxia said.
Xingluo stepped back and struck the same point again. "Then we break it."
Everyone concentrated their attacks upon the section before her, cracks of light spread across the barrier, but the floating pupils shifted positions and repaired the damaged area before their weapons could enter.
Inside Qin Haoran reached the final step and placed one hand against the throne.
The ancient seat trembled beneath his palm, and the markings covering it brightened until their light filled the barrier, cracks spread through the stone from its centre before the entire throne shattered.
Broken pieces struck the inner surface of the barrier and fell across the altar, still something remained suspended where the throne had stood.
It was a small sphere no larger than two fists, formed from layers of pale light that continuously folded through one another, the moment it emerged, it tried to rise from the altar.
Threads shot from the surrounding pupils and wrapped around it.
The sphere twisted violently as the threads dragged it toward Qin, but every attempt to escape only caused more golden lines to tighten around its surface.
Qin stared at it before his laughter filled the cathedral, the calm expression he had maintained throughout the battle finally broke as he raised both arms toward the struggling sphere.
"So this is what all of you were protecting."
He looked through the barrier at Xingluo and the others, blood still covering the lower half of his face.
"You fought, sacrificed yourselves and prayed for years without even understanding what remained beneath your god’s throne."
Miao Tianhe struck the barrier again. "Whatever that is, it does not belong to you."
Qin’s laughter faded into a smile. "It belongs to whoever possesses the strength to take it, that has always been the only law that mattered."
The pupils surrounding him turned inward and their surfaces swelled before bursting apart one after another, thick golden-black fluid poured from each destroyed eye and gathered above the sphere.
The liquid fell and the sphere shook so violently that the altar beneath it began to crack, but the threads held it in place while the golden-black substance spread across its surface.
Its pale light dimmed beneath the contamination; Qin lowered one hand and pressed his palm against it.
Symbols appeared across his fingers and entered the sphere as he began chanting in a language none of them recognised. His voice remained low, yet every word travelled through the cathedral and entered the formation beneath the city.
The hidden nodes answered and dark lines brightened across the cathedral floor before spreading through the surrounding streets.
The entire formation became visible at once, extending beneath the inner districts and surrounding the fortress in an enormous pattern.
The bodies inside the prayer hall reacted first as pale mist rose from the slaughtered children, elderly residents and disabled people before gathering around the altar. Blood across the floor separated into thin streams and moved through the barrier toward the sphere.
Xingluo’s face changed as the energy passed around her. "Stop him!"
The group struck the barrier again, but the connected eyes continued absorbing their attacks. Wuxia spread Soul Perception through the formation and followed its lines beyond the cathedral.
The ritual had already reached the battlefield, Outside the fortress the cries of the invading beasts and the collision between the two commanders briefly faded beneath a new sound.
Wind descended upon the city and the cyclone above the cathedral widened until it covered most of the inner district, pulling clouds, lightning and loose stone into its rotation. A second current formed beneath it and began drawing energy from every part of the fortress.
The corpses covering the walls and battlefield started decomposing. Flesh dried against bone before breaking apart into grey particles, blood vanished from the ground, while pale streams rose from the remains of soldiers, participants and monsters alike.
Everything was pulled toward the city, the fortress commander saw the countless strands crossing the battlefield and gathering above the cathedral.
His expression changed completely, he turned away from the enemy commander and rushed toward the walls, but a living axe struck across his path and forced him back.
The fortress commander blocked it with his spear, then attacked without withdrawing. His strikes became faster and heavier as he tried to break through, no longer protecting himself from the counterattacks reaching his armour.
The enemy commander caught the spear between both living weapons and laughed. "You are finally becoming desperate."
The fortress commander tore the weapon free and attacked again, allowing one of the black blades to open his shoulder as long as it moved him closer to the fortress.
Inside the cathedral, the participants could only watch the growing streams enter the sphere.
The golden-black liquid covering it began rotating with the gathered energy pale blood mist and the remaining power from the dead compressed around its surface until none of its original colour remained visible.
Qin’s chanting grew louder and the cathedral shook with each word, and the storm above responded as lightning repeatedly struck the centre of the cyclone.
A tearing sound spread through the sky as the clouds above the fortress separated, revealing a vast circular opening beyond them. Its interior was completely dark, but something moved behind that darkness as though pressing against the other side.
The hole widened and a pillar of gold and black light descended from its centre and struck the cathedral directly.
The entire building disappeared within the beam and tressure spread through the fortress and flattened the surrounding structures, while the defensive barriers bent onward under the weight descending from above.
Inside the cathedral, everyone was forced to the floor, Xingluo drove her sword into the stone and held herself upright as the beam passed through the roof without breaking it. Han Zhen and Miao Tianhe braced themselves nearby, while Wuxia’s soul body trembled beside her.
Qin stood at the centre of the light with one hand still pressed against the sphere. The massive wing behind him spread to its full length, while the remains of the Divine Eye barrier rotated faster around the altar.
A notification suddenly rang through the minds of every challenger inside the legacy realm.
[Warning.]
[A third unknown Authority has interfered with the Ninefold Legacy Realm.]
[Authority strength exceeds the realm’s control limit.]
The cathedral shook again as fractures spread through the air itself.
Outside, sections of the forest vanished behind broken space, while the distant castle flickered beneath the storm.
Another warning followed before anyone could recover.
[Realm structure destabilising.]
[Emergency containment failed.]
[The Ninefold Legacy Realm is collapsing.]